Today 5-Dec-2011

Today, we have David Pack from this group still here visiting his sponsored students. He will be going all day with Susie and another staff member who speaks Kakchiquel to visit his sponsored students.

 

We will be distributing all the wonderful gifts to students whose gifts we unpacked on the week end.

 

We also will be distributing the vitamins that we received.

 

We have sorted the clothes and shoes for the pre-schools and will be starting to distribute them this coming week so that all the children will have some new clothes for Christmas.

 

We are organizing all the Christmas parties  this week that will start next week.

 

We are sorting toys for the parties....this is a big job.

 

Glendi is purchasing her shoes today ...for her wedding...thanks to all the support that she has received!

She will be picking up her veil today, getting her outfit fitted....the guipil needs to have the neck cut and the sides sewn up.

 

We are interviewing all the children who will start in the Pana pre-school this coming year.

We have an extra room and we have a long list of children who are waiting to come into the pre-school so we have decided that we will open a third classroom at the Panajachel pre-school. 

We will be hiring a new teacher..another young woman who  has graduated as a teacher and can not find work so the pre-school not only helps the children but also provides jobs.

 

We are working on a project to provide water to the village of Tierra Linda. This is being proposed by the Upper Arlington Rotary Club and we hope that it will work out ...the village is having a very difficult time having enough water for all the inhabitants.

 

We start work today on the wall and gate for the Tierra Linda Community/Education center ...this is being funded by the Upper Arlington Rotary Club.

 

We are interviewing mothers with babies from 6 months to 2yrs  for the project that we are partnering with Dr. Peter Rohloff and his organization...Wuqu' Kawoq.  This is a project funded by USAID and it will be providing Nutributter to infants to 2yrs old.   Mayan Families will be working in Panajachel, El Barranco, San Jorge, Solola, Tierra Linda, San Antonio Palopo , San Andres and Santa Catarina.   We are estimating that we will have 800 babies for this program.

We will be working through the Central Salud offices and today , Mayan Families staff member , Helen will be interviewing mothers in the San Andres area.

 

We have got the quotes on the building materials needed to start building shelves and book cases for the small library that we will be starting at the Tierra Linda Community/Education center. This little library is being opened in Memory of Gabby Lewis and is being funded by the money that was sent in for her memorial. Gabby was tragically killed in a car accident this year.  Gabby was 8yrs old and had been adopted from Guatemala when she was a baby.   Gabby's parents have decided that  they would like to have Gabby remembered in a way that will benefit children here in Guatemala. We are honored that they have chosen Mayan Families to help them with this.  We are interviewing a teacher today who loves art and music and would be able to give classes in both. We envision that he will run the library and be able to give computer lessons, art and music classes as well.

 I really want this to be a memorial that Gabby's parents will be proud to have for Gabby.   We will need books for this library so if anyone would like to donate books in Spanish ....that would be wonderful. We hope to have this library open in January.

 

We will be collecting three little puppies from the vet. clinic.today ...they have been there for the week end. They were in a terrible state of starvation and suffering from parasites.   Please remember if anyone wants a puppy or a kitten, we have an abundance of the cutest Mayan terriers and Mayan kittens ...totally bi lingual and very affectionate.  We can ship them to the U.S. for you!

 

We couldn't do any of this without you.....thank you for making it possible.

Sharon

 

Sharon Smart-Poage
MAYAN FAMILIES

a registered 501.(c).(3) Non Profit Charity